Professor Alison Firth, Barrister

Visiting Professor

Profile

Professor Alison Firth has been Visiting Teacher and Visiting Professor at CCLS, 2005 to date. She teaches competition law (PG certificate in intellectual property law) and design law (PG certificate in trade mark law).

1987-2004, Professor Firth was a Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer (from 1993) at the Intellectual Property Law Unit. She taught all aspects of intellectual property at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, tort law, general principles of English law, procedure and evidence; supervised PhD students.

Postgraduate Teaching

Research

Research Interests:

Professor Firth's research focuses on intellectual property law and its relationship with competition law, contract; civil procedure and remedies.

Work in progress or projects / conferences and conference papers

Firth, A ‘Step by step in patent law ‘ Applied Research Centre for Intellectual Assets and the Law in Asia (ARCIALA) School of Law, Singapore Management University, February 2017

Firth, A ‘Trade marks, communication and competition’ Work-in-progress seminar, School of Law, University of Surrey, November 2016

Firth, A, Leong, S, Lin, X and Liu K-C Roundtable on the present and future of IP research in Asia and beyond Works-In-Progress Conference “IP Scholars Asia” School Of Law, Singapore Management University, Singapore, January 2016

Firth A., Copyright in time of plenty Society for Economic Research on Copyright Issues’ annual congress, Barcelona, July 2014

Firth, A. ‘Unfair competition’ in the scheme of things’, Jean Monnet research seminar at University of Canterbury Law School, jointly with Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Christchurch, New Zealand, April 2014

Firth A., Recent developments in design law presented at conference “Essentials of Intellectual Property for EU Officials”, Brussels, November 2013

Firth, A. and Pereira, B. ‘Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives’ Chapter in Stamatoudi, I., ed, The Future of Copyright: A European Union and International Perspective (Edward Elgar, 2016)

Firth, A., ‘Holding the Line’: The Relationship between the Public Interest and Remedies Granted or Refused, Be It for Breach of Confidence or Copyright’, Ch 21 in Torremans, P., Ed, Intellectual Property Law and Human Rights (3rd edn, 2015, Kluwer Law International)

Firth, A., ‘Devices to Restrain Competition and Protect Discoveries and Enforcement: Confidentiality in the Courts and Europe’ in M. Pittard, A. Monotti and J. Duns, Business Innovation and the Law (Edward Elgar, 2013).

Public Engagement

Arts and Humanities Research Council, peer review college member to 2013

Association of Teachers and Researchers in Intellectual Property, member

British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association, member and vice-president

Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, associate member

Competition Law Association, member

European Intellectual Property Teachers’ Network, founder member and member of organising committee. This organisation holds annual workshops on teaching and pedagogic innovation in intellectual property, most recently in Sofia, Bulgaria, 2016

European Patent Office, delivery of seminars on annual ‘SEPIA’ programme for examiners